So What Exactly is Chai Tea?

You may have heard people at your local coffee shop ordering a Chai tea instead of getting a coffee and if you're like me, you are wondering what the heck is chai. Well, I did the research for both of us.

So what exactly is chai tea or masala chai tea?

Chai pronounced (ch-eye) which rhymes with "thai" is a very popular spiced milky tea that originates from India. The word chai is actually translated to "tea" in many asian and european languages. It would be wrong though to say chai is just tea as it is the added combination of wonderful spices or the masala spice mixture, milk and sweetener that makes it chai.

Let's break it down... There are 4 main elements of chai tea and they are tea, spices, milk, and sweetener

1. Let's start with the tea:

You need a strong black tea to taste the tea flavors along side of the spices and sweeteners. One of the favorites of India is Assam tea. Assam tea is a malty strong tea which is also known as English/Irish breakfast tea. Chai can be made with other teas as well, but this is the most highly recommended tea to use.

2. Now let's discuss sweetener:

This is totally optional, but if you so choose you can sweeten your chai tea with sugar or honey, or even syrup. This is up to the individual. It is thought that the sweeteners enhance the flavor of the spices.

3. What about the milk?

A necessary ingredient in my opinion. Whole milk or condensed milk can be used, but for people not wanting to add milk they can substitute water.

4. Last but not least, let's talk the spices:

What type of spices are included in chai tea? The typical spices you will typically find are cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and pepper. In addition to these spices less commonly you will find star anise, fennel seeds, coriander, peppercorn

Credit: By Editor at Large [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Credit: By Novalis at en.wikipedia Later versions were uploaded by Consequencefree at en.wikipedia. ([1]) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons